Thursday, October 28, 2010

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

As “The Wardrobe” employees June Pfefer (left) and Pauline Hesemann (right) prepare to close the store for the day, they laughingly criticize co-worker and friend Georgia Morehouse (center) for obsessively cleaning. “The Wardrobe” is a donation based, non-for-profit thrift store that offers free clothes and shoes to families in need. Morehouse has volunteered at the store since it opened 40 years ago.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Season of Glass was an album released by Yoko Ono less than six months after the violent death of her husband John Lennon. The cover photograph was taken by Ono and featured Lennon’s bloodstained eyeglasses that he wore at the time of murder, positioned next to a half-full/half-empty glass of water. The image shocked many, but Ono wanted to remind the world that John Lennon did not just die – he was brutally and senselessly murdered. The album was a poignant tribute expressing Ono’s grief, rage and suffering in a surprisingly restrained manner, but the few moments of outburst and rage erupt quickly and chillingly,

unequivocally indicating the pain she felt. On October 9th, 2010, John Lennon would have celebrated his 70th birthday. On that day, the world will pay tribute in many ways, including a new PBS documentary “LENNONNYC”, a “Peace and Harmony” monument in Liverpool, and numerous concerts and benefits. Yoko Ono’s Season Of Glass remains the most touching and important tribute to John Lennon, but also stands alone as a truly visionary work of art.

Here's an excerpt from the Rolling Stone review of the album that I thought was really beautiful.

“Ono’s universe is a matriarchy where even the Creator is feminine. Her utopia is an idealized, enlightened child world, in which our capacity for wonder and joy is our most precious gift. Here, sexuality is polymorphous, with traditional masculine-feminine roles blurred and lovers achieving union as much through the intertwining of consciousness as through physical eroticism. This idyllic world, where the guiding principle is maternal love, certainly isn’t everyone’s idea of heaven. But, to me, it sounds a lot better than the world we live in. And at least for Yoko Ono, simply to imagine such a world is to admit the very real possibility of its existing. Again."

As I listened to the album I was moved to tears as Yoko Ono, in one of the album’s rare moments of rage, shrieked, “Bastards, hate us, hate me!” Whether it was directed at all the skeptics who questioned their relationship, Lennon’s murderer, or the world, it is such an incredibly moving moment, revealing both fragility and rage she felt at the time. In spite of the hate directed towards her, she’s indifferent to it - she remains alone with all the pain, suffering, but most importantly - love. That feeling is what inspired the photo.

At first I thought I would recreate the entire scene with both the eyeglasses and the glass of water. But I ended up focusing just on the blood, or in this case, corn syrup stained glasses. I positioned a necklace pendant that says “love” behind the “bloody” lens, which created a backlit outline of the word “love” in the lens. It’s meant to represent John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s belief that despite violence, war, and hate, what matters the most is love. Again.